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‘People say that we are already dead much as we can still walk’: a qualitative investigation of community and couples’ understanding of HIV serodiscordance in rural Uganda
Get PDFDespite the wide availability of antiretroviral treatment and HIV educational programs, heterosexual transmission continues to drive the HIV epidemic in Africa. To investigate some of the factors involved in transmission or maintenance of serodiscordant status, we designed a study to examine participants’ understanding of HIV serodiscordance and the implications this posed for their HIV prevention practices.Background: Stable, co-habiting HIV serodiscordant couples are a key population in terms of heterosexual transmission in sub-Saharan Africa. Despite the wide availability of antiretroviral treatment and HIV educational programs, heterosexual transmission continues to drive the HIV epidemic in Africa. To investigate some of the factors involved in transmission or maintenance of serodiscordant status, we designed a study to examine participants’ understanding of HIV serodiscordance and the implications this posed for their HIV prevention practices.
Methods: In-depth interviews were conducted with 28 serodiscordant couples enrolled in a treatment-asprevention study in Jinja, Uganda. Participants were asked questions regarding sexual behaviour, beliefs in treatment and prevention, participants’ and communities’ understanding and context around HIV serodiscordance. Qualitative framework analysis capturing several main themes was carried out by a team of four members, andwas cross-checked for consistency.
Results: It was found that most couples had difficulty explaining the phenomenon of serodiscordance and tended to be confused regarding prevention. Many individuals still held beliefs in pseudoscientific explanations for HIV susceptibility such as blood type and blood “strength”. The participants’ trust of treatment and medical services were well established. However, the communities’ views of both serodiscordance and treatment were more pessimistic and wrought with mistrust. Stigmatization of serodiscordance and HIV-positive status were reported frequently.
Conclusions: The results indicate that despite years of treatment and prevention methods being available, stigmatization and mistrust persist in the communities of HIV-affected individuals and may directly contribute to new cases and seroconversion. We suggest that to optimize the effects of HIV treatment and prevention, clear education and support of such methods are sorely needed in sub-Saharan African communities
Community Audio Towers in Uganda
Get PDFThis paper discusses the aiding development in the Global South, communities in Uganda engage in narrowcasting and share information using Community Audio Towers.While community broadcasting has been documented for aiding development in the Global South, communities in Uganda engage in narrowcasting and share information using Community Audio Towers (CATs). This challenges our understanding of communication for development media since CATs employ both the one-way and the two-way approaches to ensure survival. Among the crucial areas of CATs that have not been attended to by academic scrutiny is the issue of how CATs sustain themselves financially. To cover that gap, the CAT processes of information gathering, processing and dissemination, are discussed below. The discussion comes from data collected using 10 key informant interviews to show how CATs, platforms that are economically non-viable, are able to survive in myriad economically-oriented media systems in Uganda. Implications of CATs for local community development are herein highlighted
A report for a biology and chemistry primer for undergraduate students (abacus-1) – volume 1 general chemistry
Get PDFUgandan adolescents’ sources, interpretation and evaluation of sexual content in entertainment media programming
Get PDFThe definitive version of this article was first published by Taylor and Francis in Sex Education, 16:6, 707-720; link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/14681811.2016.1217840Although mounting evidence in Western nations indicates that entertainment media influence young people’s sexual socialisation, virtually no research has addressed the topic in sub-Saharan Africa. The present study employed 14 focus groups of Ugandan high school students to identify media through which they were exposed to sexual content, how they interpreted and evaluated that content, and how they compared its influence with that of parents, schools and religious institutions. Participants most often mentioned TV, followed by print media and Internet as sources of sexual material. Media were said to present discrepant messages regarding the timing of sexual debut, with international programming urging early sexual debut and local programming described as urging young people to delay sex. Young people spoke of turning to ssengas and kojjas for sexual advice, and a number of boys suggested pornography could also be educational. Both local and international programming was interpreted as conveying views of men as sex driven and women as submissive in sex and relationships. Participants expressed the belief that sexual media content had a negative impact on young people. Most nevertheless assessed these messages as more influential than other sources of sexual socialisation.This work was funded by a Fulbright AIDS and AIDS-Related Research Area Grant
Factors associated with long-term antiretroviral therapy attrition among adolescents in rural Uganda: a retrospective study
Get PDFAs access to antiretroviral therapy (ART) increases, the success of treatment programmes depends on ensuring high patient retention in HIV care. We examined retention and attrition among adolescents in ART programmes across clinics operated by The AIDS Support Organization (TASO) in Uganda, which has operated both facility- and community-based distribution models of ART delivery since 2004.Introduction: As access to antiretroviral therapy (ART) increases, the success of treatment programmes depends on ensuring high patient retention in HIV care. We examined retention and attrition among adolescents in ART programmes across clinics operated by The AIDS Support Organization (TASO) in Uganda, which has operated both facility- and community-based distribution models of ART delivery since 2004.
Methods: Using a retrospective cohort analysis of patient-level clinical data, we examined attrition and retention in HIV care and factors associated with attrition among HIV-positive adolescents aged 10–19 years who initiated ART at 10 TASO clinics between January 2006 and December 2011. Retention in care was defined as the proportion of adolescents who had had at least one facility visit within the six months prior to 1 June 2013, and attrition was defined as the proportion of adolescents who died, were lost to follow-up, or stopped treatment. Descriptive statistics and Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to determine the levels of retention in HIV care and the factors associated with attrition following ART initiation.
Results: A total of 1228 adolescents began ART between 2006 and 2011, of whom 57% were female. The median duration in HIV care was four years (IQR=3–6 years). A total of 792 (65%) adolescents were retained in care over the five-year period; 36 (3%) had died or transferred out and 400 (32%) were classified as loss to follow-up. Factors associated with attrition included being older (adjusted hazard ratio (AHR)=1.38, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.02–1.86), having a higher CD4 count (250+ cells/mm3) at treatment initiation (AHR=0.49, 95% CI 0.34–0.69) and HIV care site with a higher risk of attrition among adolescents in Gulu (AHR=2.26; 95% CI 1.27–4.02) and Masindi (AHR=3.30, 95% CI 1.87–5.84) and a lower risk of attrition in Jinja (AHR=0.24, 95% CI 0.08–0.70). Having an advanced WHO clinical stage at initiation was not associated with attrition.
Conclusions: We found an overall retention rate of 65%, which is comparable to rates achieved by TASO's adult patients and adolescents in other studies in Africa. Variations in the risk of attrition by TASO treatment site and by clinical and demographic characteristics suggest the need for early diagnosis of HIV infection, use of innovative approaches to reach and retain adolescents living with HIV in treatment and identifying specific groups, such as older adolescents, that are at high risk of dropping out of treatment for targeted care and support
Uu wulira uteina chelelo?
Get PDFThis book is telling a story about different moods human beings go through in life.This book is telling a story about different moods human beings go through in life especially among young children
Financial literacy and household investment choices in Uganda.
Get PDFThis study aims at establishing the levels of financial literacy among households in Uganda and then investigates whether financial literacy is associated with household investment choices. Financial literacy is measured using three questions that capture an understanding of the basic financial concepts of interest rate, discounting and borrowing. Specifically, the study establishes whether households with high financial literacy levels are more likely to choose to invest; through a bank investment account, with an informal group, in a personal business or invest in
Agriculture. We use both univariate and multivariate analysis techniques and a Probit model to tease out the levels of financial literacy, its determinants and its impact on household investment choices.
The study results reveal low levels of financial literacy in Uganda. Also, the study reveals that financial literacy is significantly associated with household socio-demographic factors.
The study finds that, financial literacy is positively and significantly associated with household investment choices. These results contribute to the government’s National Financial Literacy Strategy by establishing the population segments that is most/least financially literate hence such initiatives should be directed towards such population groups with low financial literacy levels. The study also establishes a key investment venture of Agriculture which requires to be revamped since it is neglected yet it is still very essential to the country’s economy
Umukaana Uganiwa Nabi
Get PDFThis is a story of a young girl who never loved to play with other children.This is a story of a young girl who never loved to play with other children
The role of pottery production in development: a case study of the Ankole region in Western Uganda.
Get PDFResearch article submitted to the Net Journal of Social Sciences Vol. 4(4), pp. 81-90.The study investigated pottery production activities in the Ankole region, Western Uganda, focusing on technical and socio-economic issues. The main objective was to investigate how pottery industry plays a role in cubing unemployment and mitigating poverty as well as its impact on the environment. The fieldwork component of the study involved qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection and analysis. Firstly, questionnaires were administered to 148 respondents from a wide cross-section of Ankole region. Secondly, 40 potters were interviewed and 7 focus group discussions were conducted with potters from this region in order to obtain a deeper understanding of the experiences and opinions of both traditional and contemporary potters something a questionnaire alone could not yield. The findings indicate that traditional pottery is primarily in the hands (role) of women, while men are engaged mainly in innovations and commercial pottery production. Undeniably, brick and tile making have become a lucrative business, especially for the male youths because of the high demand of the products by both the rural and urban communities. However, pottery activities have had a devastating effect on the environment. In some places, these activities have created pools of stagnant water which have become breeding grounds for mosquitoes, which spread malaria in many parts of the region
Effective utilisation of cassava bio-wastes through integrated process design: A sustainable approach to indirect waste management
No full textThis is a research article on an integrated process design, which can be applied in small-to-medium batch processing, which was proposed.An integrated process design, which can be applied in small-to-medium batch processing,was proposed. The process is based on the exploitation of intact (whole) cassavaroot, through optimisation of simultaneous release recovery cyanogenesis downstreamprocessing for sustainable wastes minimisation and packaging material development.An integrative seven unit process model flow was considered in the process design mod-elling. Using the release process models, it was possible to predict the maximum yield(45.8%) and the minimum total cyanogens (0.6 ppm) and colour difference (4.0) needed toavoid wastes and unsafe biopolymer derivatives. The process design allowed saving on theenergy and water due to its ability to reuse wastewaters in the reactions and release pro-cesses. Drying rates, Scanning electron micrograph, Differential scanning calorimetry, Watervapour transmission rate and Fourier transmission infrared spectroscopy analyses havedemonstrated the practical advantage of laminar flow hood air systems over oven-dryingheat for integrated process design.Thus, the integrated process design could be used as a green tool in production of cassavaproducts with near zero environmental waste disposal